The Latest: Kentucky leaders reach deal on pension plans

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Latest on Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s plan to change the state’s public pension system (all times local):

6:45 p.m.

Kentucky’s Republican leaders say they have agreed on how to change the state’s struggling public pension system.

Gov. Matt Bevin, state House Speaker Jeff Hoover and Senate President Robert Stivers will announce the plan Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the state Capitol. All are Republicans.

The state Legislature is not scheduled to reconvene until Jan. 2. But Bevin has vowed to call lawmakers back to Frankfort for a special legislative session to take up the pension bill.

Kentucky’s pension system is among the worst funded in the country. The state is at least $33 billion short of the money that will be required to pay retirement benefits over the next 30 years. More than 400,000 people are members of the state’s various public pension systems.

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3:22 p.m.

Kentucky’s Republican governor says he is close to calling state lawmakers back into session so they can make changes to one of the country’s worst-funded public pension systems.

Gov. Matt Bevin told reporters Tuesday an agreement with state lawmakers just needs “a bit of I-dotting and T-crossing.” Bevin and leaders of the state House and Senate have been crafting a proposal in private for months.

State officials are at least $33 billion short of the money needed to pay retirement benefits over the next 30 years. But talk of changing the system has prompted a wave of retirements as state workers are fearful of how the changes could impact them.

Republican state Rep. Bam Carney is a public school teacher. He said the proposal meets all “legal and moral” responsibilities.